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Rape Culture, Victim Blaming, and The Facts

What is Rape Culture?

Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence
is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. Rape culture is perpetuated
through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and
the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s
rights and safety.

Examples of Rape Culture

Blaming the victim (“She asked for it!”)

Trivializing sexual assault (“Boys will be boys!”)

Sexually explicit jokes

Tolerance of sexual harassment

Inflating false rape report statistics

Publicly scrutinizing a victim’s dress, mental state, motives, and history

Gratuitous gendered violence in movies and television

Defining “manhood” as dominant and sexually aggressive

Defining “womanhood” as submissive and sexually passive

Pressure on men to “score”

Pressure on women to not appear “cold”

Assuming only promiscuous women get raped

Assuming that men don’t get raped or that only “weak” men get raped

Refusing to take rape accusations seriously

Teaching women to avoid getting raped

Victim Blaming

One reason people blame a victim is to distance themselves from an unpleasant occurrence
and thereby confirm their own invulnerability to the risk. By labeling or accusing
the victim, others can see the victim as different from themselves. People reassure
themselves by thinking, "Because I am not like her, because I do not do that, this
would never happen to me." We need to help people understand that this is not a helpful
reaction.

Why Is It Dangerous?

Victim-blaming attitudes marginalize the victim/survivor and make it harder to come
forward and report the abuse. If the survivor knows that you or society blames her
for the abuse, s/he will not feel safe or comfortable coming forward and talking to
you.

Victim-blaming attitudes also reinforce what the abuser has been saying all along;
that it is the victim’s fault this is happening. It is NOT the victim’s fault or responsibility
to fix the situation; it is the abuser’s choice. By engaging in victim-blaming attitudes,
society allows the abuser to perpetrate relationship abuse or sexual assault while
avoiding accountability for his/her actions.

What Does Victim-Blaming Look Like?

Example of Victim-Blaming Attitude: “She must have provoked him into being abusive. They both need to change.”

Reality: This statement assumes that the victim is equally to blame for the abuse, when in
reality, abuse is a conscious choice made by the abuser. Abusers have a choice in
how they react to their partner’s actions. Options besides abuse include: walking
away, talking in the moment, respectfully explaining why an action is frustrating,
breaking up, etc. Additionally, abuse is not about individual actions that incite
the abuser to hurt his partner, but rather about the abuser’s feelings of entitlement
to do whatever he wants to his partner.

When friends and family remain neutral about the abuse and say that both people need
to change, they are colluding with and supporting the abusive partner and making it
less likely that the survivor will seek support.

How can men and women combat Rape Culture and Victim blaming?

Avoid using language that objectifies or degrades women

Speak out if you hear someone else making an offensive joke or trivializing rape

If a friend says they have been raped, take your friend seriously and be supportive

Think critically about the media’s messages about women, men, relationships, and violence

Be respectful of others’ physical space even in casual situations

Let survivors know that it is not their fault

Hold abusers accountable for their actions: do not let them make excuses like blaming
the victim, alcohol, or drugs for their behavior

Always communicate with sexual partners and do not assume consent

Define your own manhood or womanhood. Do not let stereotypes shape your actions.

Be an Active Bystander!

Adapted from Marshall University and Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness

Dating and Domestic Violence Facts

FACT: Regardless of their actions, no one deserves to be physically, verbally or sexually
abused. In fact, putting the blame for the violence on the victim is a way to manipulate
the victim and other people. Batterers will tell the victim, "You made me mad," or,
"You made me jealous," or will try to shift the burden by saying, "Everyone acts like
that." Most victims try to placate and please their abusive partners in order to de-escalate
the violence. The batterer chooses to abuse, and bears full responsibility for the
violence.

FACT: Many victims love their partners despite the abuse, blame themselves, or feel
as if they have no support system or resources outside of the relationship and so
they feel as if they can’t leave. Furthermore, the period immediately after leaving
an abusive relationship is extremely dangerous.

FACT: Jealousy and possessiveness are signs that the person sees you as a possession.
They are one of the most common early warning sign of abuse

FACT: Abuse can come in many forms, such as sexual, physical, verbal, and emotional.
When a person in a relationship repeatedly scares, hurts, or puts down the other person,
it is abuse. Harassment, intimidation, forced or coerced isolation from friends and
family and having an independent social life, humiliation, threats of harm to you
or your family or pets, threats of suicide if you leave, violating your privacy, limiting
your independence and personal choices are all examples of abuse.

FACT: While the majority of victims of domestic violence are women, men may also be
victims of relationship violence. Men face many of the same barriers as women that
prevent them from reporting abuse, but also face a different kind of stigma since
many do not believe that men can be victims of dating/domestic violence.

FACT: The majority of men and young men in our community are not violent. The use
of violence is a choice. Men who use violence in their relationships choose where
and when they are violent. The large majority of offenders who assault their partners
control their violence with others, such as friends or work colleagues, where there
is no perceived right to dominate and control.

Stating that 'All men are violent' places the blame for the violence elsewhere and
prevents the perpetrator from being responsible for his violence. The majority of
men and women want and can be allies to help in the fight against this kind of violence.

FACT: As many as one-third of all high school and college-age young people experience
violence in an intimate or dating relationship. Physical abuse is as common among
high school and college-age couples as married couples.

Sexual Assault Facts

FACT: Men, women and children of all ages, races, religions, and economic classes
can be and have been victims of sexual assault. Sexual assault occurs in rural areas,
small towns and larger cities. It is estimated that one in three girls and one six
boys will be sexually assaulted by the age of eighteen. According to the U.S. Department
of Justice, a rape or attempted rape occurs every 5 minutes in the United States.

FACT: Sexual assault is NEVER the victim’s fault. Sexual assault is a violent attack
on an individual, not a spontaneous crime of sexual passion. For a victim, it is a
humiliating and degrading act. No one “asks” for or deserves this type of attack.

FACT: Most sexual assaults are committed by someone the victim knows. Studies show
that approximately 80%-90% of women reporting sexual assaults knew their assailant.

FACT: A sexual assault can happen anywhere and at any time. The majority of assaults
occur in places ordinarily thought to be safe, such as homes, cars and offices.

FACT: Reported sexual assaults are true, with very few exceptions. According to CONNSACS,
only 2% of reported rapes are false. This is the same rate of false reporting as other
major crime reports.

FACT: Men can be, and are, sexually assaulted. Current statistics indicate that one
in six men are sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Sexual assault of men is thought
to be greatly under-reported.

FACT: Almost all sexual assaults occur between members of the same race. Interracial
rape is not common, but it does occur.

FACT: Sexual assault is motivated by hostility, power and control. Sexual assaults
are not motivated by sexual desire. Unlike animals, humans are capable of controlling
how they choose to act on or express sexual urges.

FACT: Sexual offenders come from all educational, occupational, racial and cultural
backgrounds. They are “ordinary” and “normal” individuals who sexually assault victims
to assert power and control over them and inflict violence, humiliation and degradation.

FACT: Anytime someone is forced to have sex against their will, they have been sexually
assaulted, regardless of whether or not they fought back or said "no". There are many
reasons why a victim might not physically fight their attacker including shock, fear,
threats or the size and strength of the attacker.

FACT: Survivors exhibit a spectrum of emotional responses to assault: calm, hysteria,
laughter, anger, apathy, shock. Each survivor copes with the trauma of the assault
in a different way.